NE @ Broncos: pregame thoughts

[supafly]

I love this! The anti-spin!

I agree that it appears as though Miller’s leverage was used against him, but Im also wondering if there wasn’t some luck involved here, too.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

We always seem to struggle in Denver...with them coming off some bad losses..I expect a close game even if it is Brock.

BUT...Pats after a bye..are very very good. Most likely without Hogan is my guess which will hurt a bit...gotta establish the run early

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

.....A loss to this Donkeys team would be humiliating.

Given they are pretty much playing for their season this week..would it be? Brady isn't great in Denver..and our struggles on O are concerning as of late

 

[PP2]

This is a massively important point! It reminds me of the AFCG vs. Denver in the 2015 season.

Bryan Stork Was Tipping The Snap - Inside The Pylon



Wow it is amazing. I have no idea what to make of it, it happens so fast like he just punched him out. Was it close to a block in the back? I don't know much about football technique.

Stork had developed the bad tell of dipping his head several games before the AFCG, and Gug failed to self-scout that and that is what, IMO, led to his firing. I'm pretty sure Denver caught onto that tell during tape study, and once they realized that Stork hadn't eliminated this tell, they were all over it, right away.

As far as the Lane Johnson punch- I think it's the result of studying tendencies. Von Miller has a bad habit of dipping his shoulder too much when hugging the corner on outside rushes which is why you see him fall right away. Johnson punched/rode him out of the play easily.

Also I believe that the philosophy behind calling a block in the back is that one or more hands have to be at least touching, if not on the back uniform number. You can see Johnson impacts him only on the shoulder.

 

[Uptown]

Brady hasn’t been historically great in Denver, but I think he played great in that 2015 Reg season game when we lost Hightower. He had non running game, had subpar weapons (minus Gronk), Harper’s Muff heard round the world, & played against a top 10 defense of all time.

 

[Sicilian]

Pats have historically struggled in Denver (both due to home cooked reffing and just general bad juju), Brady is running out of weapons, the defense is banged up, and the Patriots' record after bye weeks is slightly overrated (similar to their normal success anyway). I expect this to be a close game.

Pats 87
Broncos 2 (Brady kneeldown in the end zone at the end)

 

[NE-VT]

Wait, so Denver's pass attack is not a threat? Or did they did just forget to mention Brock "Peyton Manning" Lobster ?

Someone on the Pats media team might have missed BB's always "expect their best" mantra.

 

[NE-VT]

As far as the Lane Johnson punch- I think it's the result of studying tendencies. Von Miller has a bad habit of dipping his shoulder too much when hugging the corner on outside rushes which is why you see him fall right away. Johnson punched/rode him out of the play easily.

I think your take is accurate. I asked around r/nfl for more information on the technique, and got some interesting responses on it:

It’s not really a blocking technique. Never once as a lineman had I gone into a game thinking I’m going to do that. You can see how much he twists after pushing Miller, and if he didn’t toss Von, he’d be in baad positioning.

I’m guessing Lane probably noticed Von was either sleeping on certain plays, or rushing in a way that ****ed up his balance. When pass blocking the outside, if the edge rusher isn’t making a beeline to the QB, the best bet is to keep his momentum going in that same direction as long as possible, and that shove definitely kept him going farther into the backfield than into the pocket.

Hey man if you’re looking for practical moves, this isn’t really one. Balls out of wentz’ hand as soon as its snaped.

With that being said the tackle basically gives von the edge, to protect inside on the quick throw. He doesn’t even have to block as much as not **** it up. Von sees the quick drop and tries to work inside, and Lane Johnson instead gives him the outside, and just hits the back of Von’s inside shoulder leaving him flying.

I guess what I’m trying to say is it just looks really impressive, but theres no real purpose to this move other than to piss him off.

Basically the Tackle uses a combination of the defenders momentum and a strong push to literally toss him to the sides

(Emphasis mine)

 

[Mike the Brit]

I can't recommend this edition of the Quick Slants Podcast enough. It's brilliant. Listening to Mayo for twenty-five minutes taught me more about football than I've learned in whole seasons.

Quick Slants The Podcast​

His discussion of playing in Denver was really interesting.

First, he said, playing at altitude is a huge issue -- it's just that the Pats players are forbidden to talk about it.

Second he thinks that going out a day early is a big mistake. Actually, the second day is the worst. Either go out early enough to get properly acclimated or go out as late as you possibly can.

He is, in my pretty extensive experience of exercise at altitude, absolutely dead right.

My guess is that the reason is that, for the first day or so, your body's tissues still have their sea-level oxygenation. (The fact that the Patriots haven't realized this tells us something about the level they're on when it comes to medicine and sports science.)

 

[SHOWTIME15]

The biggest issue NE faces is a denver team that hasn’t won anything in over a month that will play desperate. And Denver always gets up for the NE game, regardless of record. Even if last time NE won 16-3, Brady only threw for 50% and easily had one of his worst outings of the 2016 season. Not having Hogan will hurt as it allows Denver to key in on Gronk and Cooks. Hopefully that will free up Amendola for some big gains.

 

[Sicilian]

The biggest issue NE faces is a denver team that hasn’t won anything in over a month that will play desperate. And Denver always gets up for the NE game, regardless of record. Even if last time NE won 16-3, Brady only threw for 50% and easily had one of his worst outings of the 2016 season. Not having Hogan will hurt as it allows Denver to key in on Gronk and Cooks. Hopefully that will free up Amendola for some big gains.

I can't remember, did we still have Gronk for that game, or had he gone out for the year by then?

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I can't remember, did we still have Gronk for that game, or had he gone out for the year by then?

No gronk in last year’s game.

 

[NE-VT]

No gronk in last year’s game.

The last time I remember seeing Gronk in Denver he was gasping for air the entire time. It speaks to @Mike the Brit's point in #23

 

[SHOWTIME15]

The last time I remember seeing Gronk in Denver he was gasping for air the entire time. It speaks to @Mike the Brit's point in #23

They left on friday last year and still won...

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

Menelik Watson heads to IR. Saw stories from about a month ago that he'd given up the most sacks in the NFL, so he clearly wasn't lighting the league on fire before injury.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Menelik Watson heads to IR. Saw stories from about a month ago that he'd given up the most sacks in the NFL, so he clearly wasn't lighting the league on fire before injury.

This probably helps them more than anything...

 

[Gumby]

Similar to the rewatch threads, I thought it would be nice to do a pre-game thread that's strictly X and O's.

Philly did some pretty creative things to neutralize Von Miller. Look for us to steal some stuff from what they did in their game:

The Eagles used Von Miller against himself, with gifs and stuff

Favorite line in the article:

ProFootballFocus had Miller as the highest graded player in this game, which is absolutely laughable, and totally devoid of any reasonable context.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

We always seem to struggle in Denver...with them coming off some bad losses..I expect a close game even if it is Brock.

BUT...Pats after a bye..are very very good. Most likely without Hogan is my guess which will hurt a bit...gotta establish the run early

Not so fast

Since 2011, the Patriots are just 3-3 in games following a bye week, after starting 9-1 in the first 10 seasons of the Brady-Belichick partnership.

Lazar: Patriots’ post-bye magic has gone missing in recent years

 

[TB12TheGoat]

No Cannon against Miller and Mack probably…..

 

[FCB02062]

I expect Brady to have a tough day, similar to last year - no tds, 5.8 ypa, and 68 qb rating. He had Edelman but no Gronkowski. Brady forced the ball to Edelman all day and only completed 50% of his targets. The offense has been less than stellar, mediocre at best, especially inside the 20. They have 7 touchdowns in their last 4 games - that is pretty bad.
Dion Lewis had a good game. No Hogan, so receivers will be Cooks, Amendola....and? Pats defense better hold Denver to 17 or less, because the Pats will be hard pressed to score many points.